United Way of Middle Tennessee is the new name for United Way of Greater Nashville, a regional nonprofit that funds and connects more than 200 partner agencies across ten counties. The name becomes official on January 1, 2027. Sumner County, where I live and work, joined this year.
Erica Mitchell is the President and CEO. She’s lived in Hendersonville for more than 20 years, and until the merger her job stopped at the county line she crossed every morning.
I’ve had a close seat for this one. Good Circle Marketing helped with messaging for the Sumner County merger, and my daughter was part of the student group that started Hands On Sumner. So when Erica sat down for A Good Pour, I opened with the question I’d been hearing around town. Why now?
Why did United Way of Greater Nashville become United Way of Middle Tennessee?
The region grew, and people stopped living inside one county. Erica put it this way: “Think about how much growth Nashville and the region has experienced in the last 10 years, and how the county lines are becoming less and less of a factor in terms of how people live and where they work and where they play.”
The nonprofits had figured this out first. Before any merger, United Way asked the agencies it funded in a single county whether they served other counties too. Many already did. Same organization, several counties, and a separate funding conversation in each one.
Now those agencies apply through one source. For Sumner County, the regional network also fills gaps. We didn’t have much veteran support among our local partners. Through United Way’s wider partner list, we do.
The ten counties are Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Hickman, Houston, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, and Williamson.
How did Erica Mitchell end up leading it?
She didn’t plan on nonprofit work. Erica grew up in Blount County, went to NC State, and built a career in policy. She liked it, and she missed people. She wanted to see what a policy did once it reached the ground.
So she took a grant contractor role at United Way with six months left on the grant. Her husband asked, “Are you sure? Are you kidding?”
Early on she called a meeting of higher education leaders, state officials, business leaders, and a few nonprofits, mostly to see who’d come. Everybody came.
“They did not come because of Erica Mitchell. They didn’t know my name, but they knew the name of United Way.”
She moved from contractor to leading the education team, and on January 1, 2025 she became President and CEO.
I keep coming back to that meeting because it explains the whole merger. A name people trust gets them to the table. A regional United Way spreads that trust across ten counties, including the small ones that could never build it alone.
What does ALICE mean, and why does United Way use it?
ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It describes households that earn more than the federal poverty level and still can’t afford the basics where they live. United Way uses it because the poverty rate leaves those families out.
The poverty rate looks at income. ALICE adds the local cost of housing, childcare, food, insurance, and a phone.
Erica’s example was Williamson County, where she said the poverty rate is about 9%. Add the ALICE households and her number goes to 30%. “So all of a sudden, a third of your population is struggling to make ends meet.”
Statewide, United For ALICE reports 41% of Tennessee households fell below the ALICE Threshold in 2024. That figure combines households in poverty with ALICE households.
Across the ten counties, Erica sees the same needs: housing costs, food, and wages for younger workers. Where it shows up is different. In Nashville it concentrates in the urban core. In Stewart and Houston counties it’s rural.
How does United Way of Middle Tennessee fund and connect nonprofits?
It raises money from individual donors and workplaces, grants it to more than 200 partner nonprofits, and brings those nonprofits together so they can share what each does well. The funding covers four areas: children and youth, financial security, healthy communities, and community resilience, which includes disaster recovery and volunteering.
Most people know the first half. Erica calls the second half the secret sauce. One agency may offer something that would serve another agency’s clients better, and somebody has to introduce them.
“I would consider us a convener to bring those cross-sector organizations, a catalyst for great ideas, and a champion of collaboration.”
You can give either way. Designate your gift to one organization you love, or make a general gift and let United Way send it where the need is greatest. Her question for donors: “Where do you want your dollars to go to do the most good?”
What is Hands On Sumner?
Hands On Sumner is a volunteer program started by Sumner County high school students with United Way’s Hands On team. It lists nonprofit volunteer needs in one place so students who need service hours can find them, sorted by cause.
The backstory starts with a storm. Hands On Nashville officially merged with United Way in January 2024. A month earlier, in December 2023, tornadoes hit the area while the paperwork was still in process. The two teams went to work as one.
Until then, United Way’s disaster role had been holding donated funds and sending them to nonprofits. Then Hands On called to say the power lines were cleared and it was time to canvass neighborhoods. Erica’s reaction: “What? We’re boots on the ground now.”
When a group of ten or twelve Sumner County students said they needed a coordinated way to find service hours, the fit was obvious. Students need hours for Honor Society and college applications. Nonprofits need hands. And a teenager who tries three kinds of service may find the one that becomes a career.
Erica hopes other counties copy it. She pictured the founders years from now: “They look back and say, ‘It’s still going. We started that.'”
Who pays for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library books?
Local donors do. Dolly Parton started the program, and her name gave it instant trust, but each local affiliate raises its own money. In Davidson, Williamson, and Sumner counties, the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation covers half the cost of the books and United Way raises the other half.
United Way has managed the program for those three counties since 2013. Erica’s numbers: 9,000 children in Sumner County, 50,000 across the three counties, and more than 500,000 books mailed last year. Every child from birth to age five qualifies, regardless of income.
We recorded a few weeks after Dolly died. Erica told me about a staff member’s daughter who heard the news and asked, “Mommy, who’s going to send me my books?”
The answer is whoever gives. You can designate a United Way gift to Imagination Library.
Try this once
Look up your county’s ALICE number. Go to unitedforalice.org/tennessee, find your county, and write down two figures: the poverty rate and the share of households below the ALICE Threshold.
Then ask one question about your own organization. Which of those households do we reach, and which do we miss?
It takes ten minutes. Bring both numbers to your next staff or board meeting.
You don’t have to fix ten counties. Erica’s whole model assumes nobody does this alone. Pick the one thing that tugs at you, whether that’s a volunteer shift or a designated gift, and start there.
Questions people ask about United Way of Middle Tennessee
When does the United Way of Middle Tennessee name take effect?
January 1, 2027. Until then the organization operates as United Way of Greater Nashville. United Way Worldwide has approved the new name.
Which counties does United Way of Middle Tennessee serve?
Ten: Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Hickman, Houston, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, and Williamson. Sumner County joined through a merger with United Way of Sumner County in 2026.
Can I give to one nonprofit or one program through United Way?
Yes. You can designate a gift to any partner organization or to a program such as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. A general gift goes where United Way sees the greatest need across the region.
How do students find volunteer hours in Sumner County?
Hands On Sumner lists volunteer needs from local nonprofits in one place. Students can sort by cause and sign up for a single shift or an ongoing role.
Resources
CONNECT WITH ERICA MITCHELL AND UNITED WAY:
Erica’s LinkedIn: / erica-mitchell
Website: unitedwaygreaternashville.org
Sumner County: unitedwaygreaternashville.org/sumner
Instagram:@unitedway
Volunteer with Hands On Sumner: https://handson.unitedwaygreaternashv…
FREE RESOURCES:
Find your county’s ALICE data: unitedforalice.org/tennessee